The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1887-07-16
THE CREOLES OF
LOUISIANA;
Or, "reminiscences Of an Old
Acadian.
BY FELIX VOORHEES,.
CHAPTER v.

C0o01o u0I0tOIOIe, D6CAmo ITenZl6u Will
DESPAIR and were guilty of acts Of untold
violence. The women and children wan
dered from houee to house wailing and
uttering piercing criee. Every object Of
spoil for the English was destroyed and
the tesch was applied to the holses. The
flames. famed by a stiff breeze. spread
with great rapidity and in a moments
time st, Gabriel was wrapt in q lurid
sheet Of devouring flames. We could
hear the cracking planks tortured by
the blaze, the crash Of falling roofs and
then the flames would shoot up to an
immense height height with the Kissing
and soughing Of hurricane. All! pc
tiots. 1t was fair image Of pandemo-
MUM. The people seemed an army Of
6ends spreading ruin and desolatiOn in
their path. The work oxen were killed;
q few among US. flattering their fancy
with the hopes Of speedy return to AGA
dia, threw their silverware into the
wells. Oil the ruin, the ruin. petiOts.
1t was horrible.
We left st. Gabriel numbering about
three hundred persons; whilst the ashes
OF our burning and smoking houses. car
ried by the winds whirled by us like a
pillar Of cloud to guide US through the
wilderness"
CHAPTER vi
Al dopkuooo onoroo chad NM ooe< mann
q sad look towards the spot where our
peaceful and happy st. Gabriel once
stood. Alas we could see nothing but
the crimson sky rejecting the lurid of
the flames that devOured our Acadian
villages. We walked slowly being al
most exhausted by the long ann fati-
guing march. Not . word fell from our
lips. the silence being broken now and
then by astified sob. As the night came
on the darkness seemed 10 increase our
misery, and such was the bitterness of
our sorrow that We could have met
death face to face without shudder.
At last we halted in Q deep ravine,
Swallowed by projecting rock, and sat
down to rest our weary limbs. Our ell
ders withdrew q few PAGES distant to de-
eide on the course best to pursue. In the
hurry Of our departure we had been I'M
able to decide upon plan for future &C.
ton, our main object being to escape
from the ill-treatment of q merciless
band Of soldiers.
We built no fires and spoke to each
other only In whispers. fearing. that the
least light, the least sound might betray
our place Of c0ncealment. While we
rested in state Of pitiable detection, op-
pressed with multitude of gloomy fore.
holdings. the dreadful events of the day
seemed some frightful dreams from
which we would presently awaken. rath-
or than events which had really taken
place.
In the meantime, our seniors had de-
cided that We should reach Canada as
best we could, and from there 20 by way
OF the great northern lakes to the Missis-
sippi river, on whose waters we could
hoat down to Louisiana, q french colony
inhabited by french people Of our own
race. protesting the same religious creed
a. our own.
But to carry out this plan, petiots, we
had to travel thousands Of miles through
countries barren Of civilization. through
endless forests. across lakes a. wide and
- deep as the SEQ; We were to overcome
obstacles without number and encounter